Quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS: a cross-country comparison study of Finland and Portugal

ABSTRACTThe premises underlying the development of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) instruments provide a convincing rationale for comparing quality of life (QoL) across countries. The aim of the present study was to compare the QoL of patients living with HIV infection in Finland and in Portugal, and to examine the contribution of the QoL domains to the overall QoL in these two countries. The sample comprised 453 patients from Finland (76.3% male; mean age = 46.50) and 975 from Portugal (69.2% male; mean age = 40.98), all living with HIV. QoL data were collected by use of the WHOQOL-HIV-Bref questionnaire. Significant country differences were found in QoL domains and specific facets. Patients from Finland reported markedly higher scores on all six QoL domains and general facet, than did their Portuguese counterparts. Regarding the specific facets of the WHOQOL-HIV-Bref, patients from Finland also reported significantly higher scores on 24 out of 29. The exceptions were dependence on...